• Guest: US Senator Jim DeMint. Co-author, "Why We Whisper: Restoring Our Right to Say It's Wrong".
• Guest: Investigative reporter Robert Parry, Consortium News. Obama's Dubious Praise for Reagan.
• Guest: Ben Shapiro. "Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House".
• Guest: Larry Scott, founder and Editor of VA Watch Dog.
• Bush vetoed SCHIP. Congress failed to override it.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Wednesday 23 January '08 National show

• What would be wrong if we turned into a secular country?
• Guest: US Senator Jim DeMint. Co-author, "Why We Whisper: Restoring Our Right to Say It's Wrong". "Why Whisper? calls on Americans who believe in traditional values to resist the urge to stay silent and thus safe under the shameless onslaught of pressure, intimidation, and ridicule from the San Francisco-loving, NY Times reading, multicultural, anti-business, French-first, tree-hugging secular progressives and liberal political elites. ". Government is pushing the religion of secularism. He wants values included. For example, the Boy Scouts. Slapsuits. Unwed births are ungodly. Don't throw out values because they are religious. Society is about restraining our base instincts.
• Bumper Music: I'm a Liberal, Neal Gladstone (video).
• Bumper Music: Send It, ELO.
• Thom put up a link to a site about a country where church and state merged.
• Bumper Music: Talk, Coldplay.
• Clip:
  "The principles for which we stand are the principles of fair play and a square deal for every man and every woman in the United States; a square deal politically, a square deal in matters social and industrial. I wish to see you boys join the Progressive Party and act in that party and as good citizens in the same way I'd expect any one of you to act in a football game. In other words, don't flinch, don't foul, and hit the line hard."
  Theodore Roosevelt.
• John McCain is the likely Republican nominee, tough to beat. On the economy, where Republicans are weak (and have been since the 1880s, when the railroad barons hijacked the then progressive party), he said "I still believe our fundamental underpinnings of our economy are strong, but it’s obvious that we are facing challenges that will require actions like the Federal Reserve took today — low taxes, low interest rates are obviously an important part of any long-term formula of getting our economy back and moving in the right direction again". They are disastrous because of Reagan economic policies.
• What is the true legacy of Ronald Reagan?
• Article: The Democrats-Praise-Reagan Game.
• Article: Obama's Dubious Praise for Reagan.
• Guest: Investigative reporter Robert Parry, Consortium News. What Obama said about Reagan. Perception management. Neoconservatives, Leo Strauss saying it is OK to lie for the greater good. Their families came from Trotskyism which also believed that the end justifies the means, that they were vanguard people, and would manipulate information to get people to follow them. Anti-democratic. Reagan's, "they know so much that isn't so". Central America, Guatemala, genocide, Reagan.Reagan war crimes. Reagan commercial for Truman. Reagan took a lot of interest in South America. There should be a truth commission. Obama, etc., should talk about what he did.
• Quote:
  "I do think that, for example, the 1980 election was different. I mean, I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. They felt like, you know, with all the excesses of the 60's and the 70's and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating and he tapped into what people were already feeling. Which is, people wanted clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamic and entrepreneurship that had been missing, alright? I think Kennedy, twenty years earlier, moved the country in a fundamentally different direction. So I think a lot of it just has to do with the times."
  Barack Obama (video).
• Clip:
  "But any time we question the schemes of the do-gooders, we are denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goal. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help those less fortunate. They tell us we are always against, never for anything. Well, it isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so much that isn't so. "
  Ronald Reagan (video).
• Bumper Music: What's Bush Got To Do With It?, Us the Band.
• Clip:
  "This is Ronald Reagan speaking to you from Hollywood. You know me as a motion picture actor but tonight I'm just a citizen pretty concerned about the national election next month and more than a little impatient with those promises the Republicans made before they got control of Congress a couple years ago.

  I remember listening to the radio on election night in 1946. Joseph Martin, the Republican Speaker of the House, said very solemnly, and I quote, "We Republicans intend to work for a real increase in income for everybody by encouraging more production and lower prices without impairing wages or working conditions", unquote. Remember that promise: a real increase in income for everybody. But what actually happened?

  The profits of corporations have doubled, while workers' wages have increased by only one-quarter. In other words, profits have gone up four times as much as wages, and the small increase workers did receive was more than eaten up by rising prices, which have also bored into their savings. For example, here is an Associate Press Dispatch I read the other day about Smith L. Carpenter, a craftsman in Union Springs, New York. It seems that Mr. Carpenter retired some years ago thinking he had enough money saved up that he could live out his last years without having to worry. But he didn’t figure on this Republican inflation, which ate up all of his savings, and so he's gone back to work.

  The reason this is news, is Mr. Carpenter is 91 years old.

  Now, take as a contrast the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, which reported a net profit of $210 million after taxes for the first half of 1948; an increase of 70% in one year. In other words, high prices have not been caused by higher wages, but by bigger and bigger profits.

  The Republican promises sounded pretty good in 1946, but what has happened since then, since the 80th Congress took over? Prices have climbed to the highest level in history, although the death of the OPA was supposed to bring prices down through "the natural process of free competition". Labor has been handcuffed with the vicious Taft-Hartley law. Social Security benefits have been snatched away from almost a million workers by the Gearhart bill. Fair employment practices, which had worked so well during war time, have been abandoned. Veterans' pleas for low cost homes have been ignored, and many people are still living in made-over chicken coops and garages.

  Tax-reduction bills have been passed to benefit the higher-income brackets alone. The average worker saved only $1.73 a week. In the false name of economy, millions of children have been deprived of milk once provided through the federal school lunch program. This was the payoff of the Republicans' promises. And this is why we must have new faces in the Congress of the United States: Democratic faces.

  This is why we must not only elect President Truman, but also men like Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis, the Democratic candidate for Senator from Minnesota. Mayor Humphrey at 37 is one of the ablest men in public life. He's running against Joe Ball, who was a member of the Senate Labor Committee, helped write the Taft-Hartley law. The Republicans don't want to lose Ball, and are spending a small fortune on his campaign. They've even sent [Thomas] Dewey and [Earl] Warren to Minneapolis to speak for him.

  President Truman knows the value of a man like Hubert Humphrey in the Senate, and he has been in Minneapolis too, campaigning against Joe Ball. Mayor Humphrey and Ball are the symbols of the political battle going on in America today. While Ball is a banner carrier for Wall Street, Mayor Humphrey is fighting for all the principles advocated by President Truman; for adequate low cost housing, for civil rights, for prices people can afford to pay, and for a labor movement freed of the Taft-Hartley law. I take great pride in presenting my friend from Minneapolis, Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey, candidate for United States Senator.

  "
  Reagan Campaigns for Truman in 1948.
• Bumper Music: Radio Operator, Rosanne Cash.
• Bumper Music: Dizzy, Tommy Roe.
• Article: Cat Stowaway Makes It Home Again. Thom's cat Java travelled beside the car battery once in Vermont; by chance there was a vet where he was going.
• Article: Limbaugh: "We created this whole concept of a testicle lockbox in connection with Mrs. Clinton".
• Clip:
  "So, all those clowns at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care." Bill O'Reilly, June 20 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly.
• "Clinton is a screeching, grating candidate who thrills no one and annoys virtually everyone. Obama is smooth and likeable -- and just as importantly, African-American -- even if he spouts meaningless slogans that appeal to the fawning media elite. Obama combines the strength of image with the hard-left policies that unite his backers."
  Huckabee Nomination Could Spell Defeat for GOP.
• "Everything you Know is Wrong": Guest: Ben Shapiro. His book, "Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House". "Contemporary liberal historians find it difficult to understand the allure of President Calvin Coolidge". He cut taxes for the very wealthy, and times seemed to be booming. It let to depression. Part of the allure was his image. He cultivated the image of a tight lipped but humorous guy. Is Hillary mean or tough? She should soften her image; the tearing up was good. John Edwards has a good image, but there is a media blackout and Obama has taken his positions. His metro sexual image, doing his hair. The tall candidate always wins. Hillary is best as victim. How do we get past sexist language? Romney is too slick. Suits versus boots. Cowboy candidates. Shapiro likes Giuliani on tax cuts, foreign policy, and because he's tough and doesn't care what anybody thinks, but he's lousy image-wise. Fred Thompson didn't have the energy necessary.
• Bumper Music: I'm free, Rolling Stones (video).
• Article: VA Research: Getting In Shape Reduces Death Risk.
• Guest: Larry Scott, founder and Editor of VA Watch Dog. Veteran's Issues. VA budget up, plus more for health care as an emergency contingency to avoid an appropriations veto. The president gave in to pressure. Republicans did not want to have to face veterans. What deal was made as a quid pro quo? A hiring frenzy is already on. Making VA funding non-discretionary is still on table, he does not think they can do it without a tax increase, so not this year, but within the next year if the Democrats win. Death risk research, they have a large varied base to study. Contact VA Watchdog if you have questions about claims; they have Jim Strickland, the expert on claims.
• Bumper Music: Orange Crush, R.E.M.
• If anyone in the administration said what McCain said, like waterboarding is torture, he'd have to prosecute them all.
• Article: King: Kids, taxpayers got victory with health-care vote. Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, who represents Iowa's 5th District.
• Bush vetoed SCHIP. The House was 15 votes short of overriding the veto. Representative Steve King called it a victory for kids and taxpayers. Thom strongly disagreed.
• Quote: "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat, October 7, 2002.
• Clip: "First, some ask why Iraq is different from other countries or regimes that also have terrible weapons. While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place...

  If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?

  " President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat, October 7, 2002.
• Book: "The End of History and the Last Man", Francis Fukuyama.
• Bumper Music: With God on Our Side, Us the Band.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. The Israeli/Hamas wall to Egypt has been knocked down. Dana Perino said we don't talk about Hamas. Questions about the financial situation. Forum at the New America foundation. candidate's representatives talked about their packages. The McCain said we are about $50-60 trillion short of obligations - David Walker's figures. The Hillary rep said if we raise taxes on the richest, there would still be a good economy. Does the US have the highest corporate income tax rate, as the McCain camp said? One of the highest, but they don't pay because there are so many loopholes. About 90% of corporations pay no taxes. The CBS said today the deficit will increase 34% to $219 billion this year. Green jobs. The Conservatives are saying going green will cause more job losses.